This week I’ve been experimenting with ways of presenting images to clients.

Normally I use the slideshow feature of Lightroom to present images but lately I’ve found it can be a little unpredictable when showing large numbers of images – even on my laptop with a decent processor and 4Gb of RAM, so time to explore alternatives.

A number of my co-students on the CPT bespoke course had recommended Pro Show Gold so I decided to give it a try, and I must say I’m pretty impressed so far. It has been a bit of a learning curve getting the output quality how I want it and the branding was a bit of a lucky hit (I still don’t quite know how I managed to get my logo as a transparent background on the title page !!) – but the people who have seen it so far seem to like it.

My last shoot was a re-take for a couple who I did a lifestyle shoot with a couple of weeks ago (Thanks Lucy and Andy) – but Lucy had a cold sore on her lower lip and it was proving to be a bit of a nightmare to edit it out so I decided to re-shoot some of the images to make a better set, and I’m very pleased with the outcome.

The DVD’s I ordered from Damien Lovegrove arrived during the week – just got to find the time to watch them now !!

Another baby shoot tomorrow – 2 year old Lacey, should be a good day.

Here we are again, blog update.

Since my last post I’ve been looking at how best to grow the business, both by marketing and by personal development.

On the marketing front I really need to forge links with some like-minded businesses, wedding venues, children’s boutiques etc. so I’m looking around Lincolnshire and Yorkshire for suitable opportunities to network.

On the subject of networking, I’ve just joined the FSB (Federation of small Business) which hopefully will open up a whole range of networking opportunities and bring lots of ideas for growth.

This month I’ve also decided that I need to polish my Wedding skills as I’ve got to make the best use of the quiet months, so I’ve purchased Damien Lovegroves brilliant Wedding photography DVD’s. Damien is an outstanding Wedding photographer and a great teacher, take a look at his website http://www.lovegroveconsulting.com/ and you will see loads of fantastic imagery and free advice.

This week I also got booked for a maternity shoot for a girl I know who recently found out she is pregnant – I did a lifestyle shoot recently with her and husband, now I’m booked for the baby !! can’t wait (but I need to leave it a few months for the bump to grow)

Fot the rest of the month I’m concentrating on a couple of toddler shoots I’ve got lined up – one of them will be taking place at Brodsworth Hall in Doncaster where they have a fantastic snowdrop festival so I’m aiming to make use of the flowers as background detail to create some stunning Mother’s day images.